gahorn wrote:According to the U. S. Army, their highest inflight collision rate was with airplanes painted up in International Orange tips and tail feathers.
What were these orange-trimmed birds--some kind of trainers?
That mighta been a factor--pilot/IP with their heads down in the cockpit.
Hi Send me an email address and I'll send you pictres of our 170A which is yellow only because it was the original colour it came in when sold to Switzerland.
Bert
Most of the airplanes using Int'l Orange in the military included C12's (King Airs), C46's, C47's,C54's (Skymasters), Navy C117D's, C118's (Liftmasters) C130's, C133's (Cargomasters), C74/C124's (Globemasters), C123's, and a few T41's. They tried bright orange on all of them, and even tried irridescent green on Cargomasters, and bright yellow Globemasters, none of which improved the situation. They went back to common MATS, group, and drab colors for the most part. The collisions did not necessarily occur with other military aircraft.
T41's did not suffer a higher rate than other aircraft.
'53 B-model N146YS SN:25713
50th Anniversary of Flight Model. Winner-Best Original 170B, 100th Anniversary of Flight Convention. An originality nut (mostly) for the right reasons.
Don't forget T-34s, TH-57s (Jet Rangers), A-4s, H-3s, etc, etc. Having flown these I can say that the International Orange isn't necessarily that much more visible in flight, but they do stand out on the ground where you are able to differentiate the colors. I believe white stands out better in the air and on the ground as well,but an additional color such as orange or red stripes, that doesn't occur in nature helps draw your attention.
I guess CONTRAST is the ticket, and it varies with the geography.
David
The problem is that color is mostly observed near the center of vision. If you're already looking at it then you'll likely see it despite it's color rather than because of it. Peripheral vision is less observant of color. (It's a rods and cones thing.)
'53 B-model N146YS SN:25713
50th Anniversary of Flight Model. Winner-Best Original 170B, 100th Anniversary of Flight Convention. An originality nut (mostly) for the right reasons.
I used to recover unmanned aerial target drones over water, the largest was maybe 20 feet long with similar sized wings, it was painted international orange, trailed a flourescent green dye, and usually had a white and orange parachute tangled up on it. I have flown repeatedly over it within probably less than a quarter of a mile with five sets of eyes looking for it and missed seeing it only to have it stand out almost directly underneath.
Other times you could pick it out from several miles away.
I guess it just depends on whether you are lucky enough to look at it right the first time (that center of vision thing).
David
